Coastal City Of Da Nang In Vietnam
After visiting Ho Chi Minh City (for my second time) and touring the Mekong Delta, I spent a few days in Da Nang which is a coastal city that has been getting a lot of attention from tourists, expats and digital nomads. Right away upon the short ride from the airport to our Airbnb I can see that Da Nang is much less crazy in traffic being a much smaller city compared to the craziness of Ho Chi Minh City. The small mountains as well as the long beautiful beach provide a breathtaking natural scenery.
Every weekend there is a show on the Dragon Bridge which shoots out fire and then water along with a nice light show along the entire length of the bridge (see the video below as I captured footage of this). This weekend attraction brings out both locals and tourists alike. The outdoor night market right next to the Dragon Bridge is super convenient to get local Vietnamese food as long as one is willing to tolerate the crowds and the small short sized plastic tables and chairs that are popular here in Vietnam.
The next day was touring the Lady Buddha temple on the mountain overlooking Da Nang’s coastline where there were beautiful marble statues and pagodas influenced by Chinese religion.
At the other end of the city is another popular attraction called Marble Mountains which are caves where Buddhist shrines were carved right into the marble and granite stone. I should mention that the daytime temperature here in Da Nang was very hot for me. The caves acted like a quick break from the heat but we often had to climb some steep steps to get to each one.
After the Marble Mountains a 30 minute Grab (Asia’s version of Uber) ride took us to the quaint village of Hoi An where the main tourist area along a canal still uses buildings that were built long ago. Yes there were tourist crowds here but at night time the there were hundreds of lanterns which lit both the streets as well as the many paddle boats on the canal.
The final day in Da Nang was a trip to Ba Na Hills about 40 minutes outside town where cable cars bought us up to a theme park. The main attraction is the Golden Bridge featuring the Hands Of God where breathtaking views of the mountains and Da Nang can be taken in. The rest of the theme park for me was a waste of time since it was modelled after a French village. If I wanted to see French architecture then I would go to France.
Overall my second trip to Vietnam was a success although I decided that I would not want to spend any extended time here because the temperatures are just too darn hot for me. I would be open to returning to Vietnam in the future for a short visit to Hanoi though. When I returned back to Canada, I went to one of the regular Vietnamese restaurants I usually go to after scuba diving and ordered a Bahn Mi (Vietnamese submarine sandwich). Sadly and not surprisingly, it did not even come close to being comparable to the ones I had in Da Nang!
